Pierrette Ringuette (born December 31, 1955), also formerly known as Pierrette Ringuette-Maltais, is a Canadian politician. Ringuette, a businesswoman and professor, was the first

francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

woman to be elected to the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick The Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick () is the deliberative assembly of the New Brunswick Legislature, in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The assembly's seat is located in Fredericton. It was established in Saint John ''de jure'' ...

. She sat in the body as a member of the New Brunswick Liberal Party beginning in 1987, and resigned her seat once she was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP). She was succeeded by her predecessor, Percy Mockler, in a provincial

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in 1993. In the 1993 federal election, she won a

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

as the Liberal MP for

Madawaska—Victoria Madawaska—Victoria was a federal electoral district in New Brunswick, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 1997. The riding consisted of Madawaska and Victoria Counties, which until 1966 had been part ...

by defeating Progressive Conservative

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

Bernard Valcourt Bernard Valcourt (born February 18, 1952) is a Canadian politician and lawyer, who served as Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Madawaska—Restigouche, New Brunswick until he was defeated in the 2015 federal election. Early ...

. She was defeated in the subsequent 1997 federal election, one of a number of Maritime Liberal MPs who lost their seats that year. After her electoral defeat, she joined

Canada Post Corporation Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary Postal administration, postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office ...

in a senior position as manager of the international trade development unit. On December 12, 2002, she was appointed to the Senate on the recommendation of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...

. On January 29, 2014, Liberal Party leader

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...

announced all Liberal Senators, including Ringuette, were removed from the Liberal caucus, and would continue sitting as Independents. The Senators referred to themselves as the

Senate Liberal Caucus The Senate Liberal Caucus (), also known as the Senate Liberals (), was, from 2014 to 2019, a parliamentary grouping in the Senate of Canada made up of independent senators who were individually members of the Liberal Party of Canada and were ap ...

even though they are no longer members of the parliamentary Liberal caucus. Ringuette announced, on February 2, 2016 that she was leaving the Senate Liberal caucus to sit as an Independent saying, in a statement, that "Canadians have been clear in their desire for a non-partisan Senate. The status quo is not acceptable." She has a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the University of Moncton and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

. She has completed the coursework for a

Master of Industrial Relations Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

Electoral record

Federal

, - , Liberal , Pierrette Ringuette , align="right", 16,058 , align="right", 48.8 , align="right", +5.0 , - , style="width: 150px" , Progressive Conservative ,

, align="right", 15,045 , align="right", 45.7 , align="right", -2.5 , - , - ,

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

, Parise Martin , align="right", 844 , align="right", 2.6 , align="right", -5.4 , - bgcolor="white" !align="left" colspan=3, Total !align="right", 32,902 !align="right", !align="right",

Provincial

References

;Notes ;Sources
Official biography on Parliament of Canada websitePersonal senatorial website

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ringuette, Pierrette 1955 births Politicians of Acadian descent Canadian senators from New Brunswick Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Women members of the Senate of Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Liberal Party of Canada senators Independent Canadian senators Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from New Brunswick New Brunswick Liberal Association MLAs People from Edmundston Université de Moncton alumni University of Ottawa alumni Women MLAs in New Brunswick 20th-century Canadian women politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians Independent Senators Group 21st-century members of the Senate of Canada 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick